Mary Anne and the Mother Mystery
by Andrea P. Quintell
Summary: The BabySitters get a new client, but something doesn't seem right about the family... what's going on? AN: All characters excluding the ones I make up are Ann M. Martin's, and I am using them without her permission for my own fun.
1. Chapter 1

"Oh, my Lord!" Claudia Kishi exclaimed, pulling a bag of M&Ms out from under her bed. "I thought I'd lost these forever! Who wants some?"

Stacey McGill rolled her eyes. "Got any pretzels?" she asked.

"I'll take some," I said, reaching for Claudia's offering of some chocolate goodness. My father wasn't keen on stocking candy in the house, and my stepmother would never hear of it, I'm sure.

Oh, I guess I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Mary Anne Spier. I'm thirteen years old and in the eighth grade at Stoneybrook Middle School. If you've never heard of Stoneybrook, it's probably because it's a rather small town about half an hour from Stamford, Connecticut. I've lived here all my life… when I was younger, I lived on Bradford Court with my father (my mother died when I was just a baby, so I never really knew her), but now I live with my father, my stepmother, and my stepsister!

It's actually kind of a cool story. Basically, my father, Richard Spier, and Dawn's mother Sharon were high school sweethearts. When I met Dawn, I had no idea about this, but eventually, our parents rekindled their relationship and got married! How awesome is it to have your best friend turn out to be your stepsister? Dawn's brother Jeff moved back to their home state of California to be with his dad, but Dawn and Sharon are living with us. I've never had any siblings before, so it's a really nice change for me.

Confused yet? I'll explain everything.

Back when I used to live on Bradford Court, my best friend was Kristy (short for Kristin) Thomas. We also hung out with Claudia a lot. Kristy and her three brothers lived with their mom, because their dad walked out when Kristy was really young. She hardly ever speaks to him anymore. But the good news? Her mom married a millionaire! Now the whole family (Kristy's mom, brothers Sam, Charlie, and David Michael, her stepsiblings Andrew and Karen, her grandmother Nannie, her stepfather Watson, her adopted sister Emily Michelle, Shannon the dog, Boo-Boo the cat, and Goldfishie and Crystal Light the Second… whew!) lives across town in Watson's mansion. That hasn't changed Kristy much, though. She's always been a really outgoing tomboy. She's really short for her age, and never dresses to impress (mostly she just wears a turtleneck shirt, jeans, a sweater, and her favorite baseball cap with a picture of a collie on it), but boy do people notice her. She's an idea machine of sorts. She even created the Baby-Sitters Club, which I'll tell you about in a minute.

Even though Kristy was my first best friend, we're about as different as we can be. Well, maybe not in terms of looks. She has longish brown hair and brown eyes. My eyes are brown, but my hair is pretty short, and I also have glasses for reading. I'm as shy as she is outgoing, and as sensitive as she is loud. Sappy movies, commercials, books, EVERYTHING makes me cry. I'm short too, but my style is more prep than Kristy's is. For example, that day, I was wearing khaki Capri pants, a pink sweater, white flats, and a necklace with a single pearl on the end. Not that exciting, but I like to look neat and stylish.

I didn't always have such freedom, though. Since my mom died when I was so young, my dad was extra-protective of me. He only let me wear skirts, I had to keep my hair in braids, and I pretty much wasn't able to stay out late at all. I'm surprised he let me join the Baby-Sitters Club! After he got married to Sharon, though, he totally loosened up. He let me start dressing more the way I wanted to, let me get my hair cut, extended my curfew, and even let me get a kitten! (Tigger is grey and striped, and is the love of my life… besides Logan, that is!) He's also fine with the fact that I have a boyfriend. Logan Bruno and I met way back before my thirteenth birthday, and we've been dating ever since. Like all couples, we've had our problems, but the bottom line is I love him and he loves me. Plus, he looks exactly like my favorite actor, Cam Geary, which certainly doesn't hurt.

Let's see… the other person who lived (and still lives) on Bradford Court is Claudia Kishi. She lives with her parents and her genius sister. I really mean genius, by the way. Janine has an IQ of well over the genius level, and she can be kind of annoying sometimes, but mostly she's pretty cool. All she likes to do is study, though, which Claudia can't understand at all. As studious as Janine is, that's how UN-studious Claudia is. Her passions are art, junk food, and Nancy Drew books, in that order. Since she's totally not allowed to have the second two (only good wholesome food and classic literature for the Kishis!), she has to hide them around in her room. That explains why she'd almost lost the bag of M&Ms. At a typical meeting, she pulls out five different kinds of chocolate snacks—and some healthy stuff too, for Stacey and Dawn.

Claudia is also the wildest dresser I know. It's weird, because stuff that would look absolutely dreadful on me (or anyone else for that matter) looks absolutely amazing on Claud. For example, at today's meeting, she was wearing a short-sleeved dress that looked as if it had been water colored in all shades of the rainbow, sky blue leggings that went down past her knees, pink boots with rainbow laces, a short yellow vest covered in various rhinestones of all colors, and earrings made of little rainbows. I would look like a clown in that ensemble, but Claud looked gorgeous. I still don't understand how her skin and figure stay so good-looking, with all that junk food… but I guess Claudia's just lucky! And, due to her Japanese-American heritage, she looks good in every color.

Of course, Claudia and I are good friends, but Claud's absolute best friend in the world is Stacey McGill. She's thin, gorgeous, sophisticated, and a math whiz. Like Claudia, she loves to create wild outfits to wear to school, but she's a little more subdued that Claudia. Today, she wore cropped black pants, a long-sleeved red shirt, three different sparkly necklaces around her neck, a black beret, and red kitten-heel sandals. She looked gorgeous, as always, with her permed blonde hair and blue eyes. The coolest thing about Stacey is that she's from New York City. I would LOVE to be from New York City, but I'm not too jealous of Stacey. You see, she has diabetes, which is a disease where your body can't process sugar. Stace has to give herself shots of insulin every day (ew!) and make sure her blood sugar is at a safe level, or else she can get very sick (which is why she was asking for the pretzels earlier). She carries it well, though, and always sticks to her diet to keep herself healthy. It's a good thing, too, because her parents are divorced and don't have time to keep track of her diet themselves. Her dad lives back in New York, and her mom lives here in Stoneybrook. Stacey doesn't have any brothers or sisters, but sometimes I think she and Claudia are so close, they might as well be sisters.

Oh, I haven't told you about MY sister yet! I met Dawn Schafer when she moved to Stoneybrook from Palo City (right near Los Angeles), California. She looks Californian, too—long, pale blonde hair, tan skin, sparkling blue eyes, and a completely unique style. Dawn's outfit today consisted of wide-leg denim Capri pants, a long white men's shirt over a pale turquoise tank top, and turquoise studs in all four of her pierced ears (she has two holes in each ear!). On her feet were turquoise flip-flops. She looked ready to go to the beach.

Another thing about Dawn is that she's a vegetarian and complete health-food freak. She won't touch sugary stuff with a ten-foot pole, so she and Stacey always snack on pretzels or crackers at our meetings (which Claudia hides along with the junk food). Her family is the same way—her mom, Sharon, her brother Jeff, and her dad (who lives in California with Jeff, since her parents are divorced too).

We also have two junior officers in our club: Mallory Pike and Jessi (Jessica) Ramsey. Mal and Jessi are best friends. They both love horses, are the oldest in their families, and are eleven years old and in sixth grade. The differences? Well, Mallory is the oldest of EIGHT kids, has long curly red hair, glasses, and braces. She longs for the braces to come off and to get contacts, but her parents say no way. She plans to become a famous author someday. Jessi, on the other hand, only has two younger siblings, and she wants to be a professional ballet dancer. She's been taking ballet lessons for most of her life, and she even looks like a dancer. She's tall, thin, and has long legs. She's also African-American, which is another difference between her and Mal. But even though they come from very different backgrounds, they couldn't be tighter.

We also have two associate members. Logan Bruno (my boyfriend!) and Shannon Kilbourne, who's Kristy's neighbor. They don't come to meetings, but if we're swamped and need extra help, we can call on them to help us out.

Whew! Okay, back to the meeting. Claudia passed out the M&Ms to Kristy, Mallory, Jessi, and me, and located some cheese crackers for Stacey and Dawn. Just as I'd popped a few pieces of candy into my mouth, the phone rang. "I'll get it!" Kristy exclaimed, and reached for the phone. "Hello, you have called the Baby-Sitters Club, how may we be of service?"

I started cracking up. Honestly, Kristy takes the BSC so seriously!

Hmm. You're probably wondering what the BSC is and how it works. Well, it all started with Kristy. Her mom couldn't find a sitter for David Michael, her youngest brother, so Kristy thought, "wouldn't it be great to call one number and reach a whole lot of sitters?" And presto! The Baby-Sitters Club was born! Kristy, Claudia, Stacey, and I were the original members, and then came Dawn, Mallory, and Jessi. We decided to meet from 5:30-6:00 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, in Claudia's room (because she has her own phone AND her own phone line. How fresh!). The way it works is like this. Clients call Claudia's number, and we see when they need a sitter. Then, I look at the appointment book (I'm the secretary, since I'm good with writing and very organized) and see who's free. I keep track of everything, from Mal's orthodontist meetings to Claudia's art classes to Jessi's ballet practices. I let everyone know who's free, and then whoever is free takes the job and we call the client back. On Mondays, we hand over dues to Stacey, who's the treasurer (remember how I said she was a math whiz?). Kristy, being the idea machine she is, is our president, and Claudia is vice president, since we use her room. Mal and Jessi are junior officers, since they're younger than the rest of us (we're all thirteen except for them), and Dawn is the alternate officer, and takes the place of anyone who can't make a meeting. Usually, she has to act as treasurer, because Stacey goes to New York pretty often. No one likes paying dues, but we have to, to pay Charlie for driving Kristy over to meetings, and to buy new things for our Kid-Kits.

Kid-Kits, by the way, are another Great Kristy Invention. Basically, they're boxes that are full of crayons, coloring books, toys, books, dolls, and anything else that might be fun for kids. Everyone knows that toys are more fun when they're someone else's, right?

Okay, so now you know how everything works. As I was saying, at that meeting, Kristy answered the phone. I started cracking up. " 'How may we be of SERVICE'?" I said. "What are we, a tech support office?"

Kristy ignored me. "Yes? Oh, hi, Mrs. Pike. Yes, we'll call you right back." She hung up. "Who wants to sit for all seven of the Pikes, Friday at 6:30?"

I groaned inwardly. Don't get me wrong, I love the Pike clan, but there are so many of them. Byron, Adam, and Jordan are ten-year-old triplets. Vanessa is nine, Nicky is eight, Margo is seven, and Claire is just five. We always send two sitters to sit for all the Pikes because they're such a handful.

I checked the appointment book. "Mal, you and Jessi are free. So are Kristy, Claudia, and myself."

"Jessi, you wanna take care of it?" Mallory said. "I mean, they ARE my siblings."

"Sure," said Jessi. "I love your brothers and sisters. And it'll give me some time to wind down from ballet class."

Kristy called Mrs. Pike back and let her know that Mal and Jessi would be sitting on Friday. Then, she turned to us. "So I was thinking…"

"Uh oh!" Dawn giggled. "I smell an Idea!"

Kristy stuck her tongue out at Dawn. "Well, summer has just started—"

"Yahoo!" Claudia cheered. (School is not her favorite subject.)

"A-HEM! Summer has started, and we're going to hit the standard boredom streak soon," said Kristy. "I think it would be a good idea for us to plan something fun for the kids BEFORE they start getting whiny."

"I like that," said Stacey. "Preventing the summer doldrums."

"But let's not do a day camp," I interjected. "At least, not the same day camp we usually do. This needs to be different."

Dawn munched thoughtfully on a pretzel. "Well, in California, we always equate summer with water-related fun."

"That sounds fun," I said, "but what about the kids who don't know how to swim? I mean, we're going to be dealing with all ages, aren't we? We need to come up with something fun and safe for them to work on."

I watched as Claudia's clock went from 5:59 to 6:00. "Everyone, keep thinking!" Kristy advised. "This is going to be the best summer ever!"


	2. Chapter 2

i Author's note: Sorry about the first couple of lines… they're supposed to be Mal and Jessi writing in the club notebook, and although I have their handwriting fonts on my computer, they won't translate onto the internet. So from now on, you can assume that anything written after (Character's name) is written in her handwriting in the notebook. /i

(Jessi) Mal, your brothers and sisters are hitting the summer boredom early this year!

(Mallory) Well, Jessi, it's not like they have anything better to do. School's out and summer camps don't start until July.

(Jessi) We figured we'd have to help them come up with something fun to do… but instead, they helped us!

(Mallory) Kristy, I think we might have an idea for what to do…

Mallory was used to her siblings and their "what should we DOOOOO?" whining, but Jessi wasn't quite prepared for it. At any rate, when Jessi showed up at the Pike place on Friday, she wasn't entirely surprised to find most of the Pikes sitting lazily in the rec room, whining.

"There's nothing to do-o," moaned Margo.

"You're a boring silly-billy-goo-goo!" Claire countered, sticking her tongue out at Margo.

Mallory looked at Jessi and shrugged. "They've been like this all day," she whispered.

"Hi guys," Jessi said. "So, uh, how about we… go to the park?"

"BOR-ing," Adam, Jordan, and Byron said, almost in unison (it must be a triplet thing, Jessi mused).

"Play outside? It's a beautiful day…"

"Too hot," Nicky complained.

"Playing outside has been said and done, we need to have some different fun," chanted Vanessa, who has a tendency to speak in rhyme. She wants to be a great poet someday. The rest of the Pikes and Jessi rolled their eyes.

Mallory sighed. "Well, does anyone want a snack?" she asked, somewhat irritably. The day was a little too warm to be comfortable, quite sticky, and not entirely suitable for playing outside anyway. At least they could discuss activities whilst eating a snack. She walked into the kitchen, the seven remaining Pikes and Jessi close behind her. Looking into the refrigerator, she noticed that there wasn't entirely a huge selection of food to snack on.

"Your mom didn't set anything out anywhere, did she?" Jessi asked.

Mal sighed. "Nah, she's probably going grocery shopping this afternoon. She said after her appointment, she'd pick up some dinner."

"We don't WANT to wait for dinner," Nicky complained.

"I'm hungry now!" Claire whined.

Jessi rolled her eyes. Time to get creative. "Hey, Mal," she turned to face her friend, "do you have bananas, raisins, and peanut butter?"

"I think so," replied Mallory. "Why do you ask?"

"I remember when I was younger, Mama would get out a few healthful supplies and let us make our own snacks," Jessi explained. "You know… banana people with raisin eyes, that sort of stuff."

Mallory considered. It WAS something to do. "Okay," she said, turning to face the hungry Pike pack. "Today, I'm going to let you play with your food."

"We get to PLAY with our FOOD?" Byron asked, looking puzzled.

"Within reason," Mallory said calmly. "What we're going to do is spread out a bunch of waxed paper on the table, and you'll each get a banana. Jessi and I will put some stuff in the middle, and you can do whatever you want with your banana—as long as you eat it when you're done and don't take any of the food off this table. Understand?"

"Awesome!" Adam shouted, engaging Byron and Jordan a triple high-five.

"I'm going to make a banana silly-billy-goo-goo!" Claire shrieked. (Being only five, Claire's favorite phrase to use in any sentence is "silly-billy-goo-goo". I think each one of us baby-sitters has been called that name at least twice.)

"I wanna make a rocket ship!" Nicky exclaimed.

Jessi was surprised. She hadn't expected her idea to go over so well. She aided Mallory in waxed papering the table and then passing out one banana to each Pike (except Mallory, with whom she shared a banana) and putting bowls of raisins, chocolate chips, pretzel sticks, and peanut butter in the middle. Once the snack was set out, all the Pikes got to work making edible creations.

Surprisingly, Mallory thought, the kids were perfectly content to play with their food. Not a single fight or argument broke out, and they made some pretty cute stuff. Claire had made something that looked like a mashed-up banana and peanut butter mountain with chocolate chips and raisins all over it (the "silly-billy-goo-goo", Mal thought), Margo had attempted a snowman, Nicky was indeed building a rocket ship (although the wings kept falling off… peanut butter is not exactly the world's strongest glue), Vanessa was arranging various toppings in neat rows, and the triplets were making variations of monsters. Mallory, who'd made a cat, and Jessi, who'd made a tree (complete with pretzel branches and a raisin owl) kept a close eye on the kids to make sure no peanut butter got on any surface other than the waxed paper table.

After what seemed like a very long time, the Pike clan was done with their creations. Mallory, thinking quickly, ran upstairs to get her old Polaroid camera to take pictures of their work, and then proclaimed, "Dig in!" The table was a flurry of banana eating, and the only mishap was when Margo accidentally spilled the remaining chocolate chips onto Nicky's lap and the floor, and Pow (the Pike's basset hound) tried to eat them off the ground. Claire, who, along with the rest of the family, had been instructed that chocolate could be toxic to many dogs, panicked and tried to pull Pow away from the fray. Unfortunately, her hands were still covered in peanut butter, so Pow's fur began turning sticky and tan.

Mallory and Jessi leaped into action. Jessi grabbed hold of Claire and took her immediately to the sink to clean off her hands, and then the two of them picked up the chocolate chips. Mallory took Pow by the collar, led him outside, and cleaned him off as best she could with paper towels and the hose. Since it was so warm out, she let him run around to dry off, but made sure he followed her back inside, to avoid getting heat exhaustion or anything.

Finally, with the mess cleaned up and the kids' tummies full, they all went back into the rec room. "That was a really neat snack," said Nicky.

"I liked the snack, yes indeed. It's just what us Pikes need!" Vanessa sang, while everyone groaned.

"You should teach us how to make more fun food!" exclaimed Margo.

Mallory smiled, and then the light bulb went off over her head. "Ohmigosh!" she told Jessi later on, "Kristy isn't the only one who can have great ideas! Margo might be onto something."

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Mal?" asked Jessi excitedly.

"You know it!" Mallory said with a giggle. "Just wait until we tell the others."


	3. Chapter 3

I checked my watch as I pedalled. 5:21. That should be perfect, considering I was turning onto Bradford court already, nudging my bike in the direction of Claudia's house. I missed the days when I could just walk across the street to get to Claudia's, but since my dad married Sharon, we'd moved into the Schafers' old farmhouse.

I arrived at Claudia's house, parked my bike in the garage, and went inside. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays (our club meeting days), the Kishis just leave their door unlocked for all us baby-sitters—can you imagine how annoying it would be to have to answer the door six times in ten minutes?

"Right on time," Kristy informed me as I walked into the room. I checked the clock, which said 5:25. Excellent. Kristy doesn't tolerate lateness, and any club member who enters the room after 5:30 gets what the rest of us BSCers refer to as "The Look"—and nobody wants a Look from Kristy. "Where's Dawn?" she asked me.

"Sharon took her shopping for earrings," I explained. Since I didn't have my own ears pierced, I hadn't bothered to go along. "She promised to bring Dawn here when they were done, so hopefully she'll be on time." Sharon isn't exactly the world's most organized person.

Kristy frowned. "Well, she'd better be on time. Mal and Jessi are telling me they have some club business to discuss, and I don't want her to miss out!"

I took my usual seat on Claudia's bed. "Hey, Kristy, where's Clau—"

"Snickers or Milky Ways?" Claudia asked, popping up out from under her bed and holding a bag of each of the candy bars in question.

I screamed and dropped the club record book, which I'd been holding.

"Claudia, you scared Mary Anne!" Mallory chastised in a fit of giggles, which Jessi and Kristy were sharing as well. I stuck my tongue at them, but soon started laughing with them. Claudia joined in, and by the time Dawn and Stacey walked in together, we were all rolling on the floor with laughter.

Dawn gave Stacey a look. "I have the feeling we missed something good."

"Oh, it's nothing," Kristy gasped for air. "Claudia just scared the socks off Mary Anne, that's all." She burst into another fit of laughter.

"For your information," I said, "I wasn't wearing socks to begin with!" I showed off my new sandals. "I just got these last week, and I—"

"Order! Order, order!" Kristy cried in the midst of the chaos. I glanced over and saw that Claudia's alarm clock (also known as the BSC Official Timepiece) had flipped over to 5:30, and it was time for the meeting. She scrambled into Claud's director's chair and crammed her visor onto her head (seriously, what thirteen-year-old wears a visor?) to look more "official." "This meeting of the Baby-Sitters Club is now in session. Any club business?"

Jessi rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Kristy, you've known Mal and I had club business since, like, fifteen minutes ago!"

"We-ell…" Kristy appeared to be considering, "okay. Since it's not dues day—" (the rest of us cheered at that statement, except Stacey, who said "aww") "—I guess I can let you guys share your business."

"Great!" exclaimed Mallory. "Well, as you know, we sat for my brothers and sisters the other day, and of course they were in one of their Moods. Claire was doing the silly-billy-goo-goo thing again, the triplets were crazy, and you know how it goes…"

Jessi cut in. "What Mal is saying is that we had to improvise an activity for them, and so I taught them how to make banana people."

Five blank faces stared at her. "Um, Jessi, I appreciate the fact that you're advocating the consumption of fructose-infused healthful treats, but I really don't think people are made of bananas," said Dawn.

The blank faces turned to Dawn. "What in the world was _that_?" asked Claudia. "Are you Janine? Hello?" she began waving her hand in front of Dawn's face, "Janine? Are you in there?"

Dawn looked insulted. "There's nothing wrong with wanting to sound intelligent. If you support a cause, people will take you seriously if you have a big vocabulary. I'm trying to get the people of the world to eat less refined sugar and more natural sugar, like the kind that's in fruit. The effects of eating too much—"

"O_kay_, we _get_ it," grumbled Mallory, cutting her off. "The point is, Jessi came up with this brilliant idea to turn snack time into something fun and easy for the kids to do." She went on to explain the concept of Jessi's "banana people", and how they'd spent a good couple of hours happily putting together snacks that were fun, easy, and above all, nutritious. "Anyway, so Jessi and I were talking, and we thought it might be fun to set up some sort of cooking camp for the kids this summer, or something."

"Yeah," Jessi agreed, "We could take the kids somewhere, meet at someone's house or something, and teach the kids how to make healthful snacks that are easy to make and fun to eat."

Stacey started snickering. "Easy to make and fun to eat! That sounds like a TV commercial or something." We all chuckled at that remark.

"You know what, though, I like that idea," I said. "I mean, how many times did we raid the fridge as kids trying to find something delicious that we could cook for ourselves? Parents don't always have time to fix snacks, you know."

Kristy grinned. "I think you guys have just had one of my trademark Great Ideas! Let's start planning at the next meeting; we should probably get back to club business for now, though. I mean, someone's got to call soon." Just as she'd finished speaking, the phone rang.

I was closest to the receiver at the time, so I answered it. "Hello, Baby-Sitters Club," I said into the phone.

"Um, hello," said a male voice on the other end. "I, uh, saw your flyer downtown. I need a sitter… could you help me?"

"Sure thing," I smiled into the phone even though he couldn't see me, "kids are our speciality. I need to ask you a few questions first, since you're a new client. Could you please tell me your name, how many kids you have, their ages, and when you need a sitter?"

The guy seemed to relax a bit after that. "Well, my name is Mr. Gibson. George Gibson. We, er, I have two kids. Rachel's nine, and Lauren is four. I actually need someone to come over a few times a week for a few weeks, sort of an all day thing. Maybe ten in the morning until three pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays? Yeah, that should be about it. Y'see, we just moved here, and we're—I mean, I'm trying to get settled, tie up some loose ends, and all that. So can you girls help me out?"

"I'm sure we can, Mr. Gibson," I said. "Can I please have your number and I'll call you right back? Thanks!" I finished the call and hung up the phone.

"Yyyyyes!" Kristy pumped her fist into the air. "New client!"

Claudia started passing around the bag of Snickers bars, saying, "This is a perfect time to celebrate with chocolate."

"Claud, any time is a perfect time for chocolate for you!" Stacey said, bopping Claudia over the head with a pillow.

"Shh," I told them. "Don't you want to hear about the new client?" _That_ shut everyone up. I started relaying what Mr. Gibson had said to them, and finished with the part about how he'd need a sitter once a week for half the day. The money would be good, but that was a serious chunk of time to donate to babysitting one family. Fortunately, we didn't appear to be too swamped, judging by the record book. I paged through it, checking everyone's schedules.

"It looks like Kristy, Dawn, and I are free," I said. "Stacey's got New York time, Jessi has ballet, Claudia has art classes, and Mal's in charge of walking Margo and Claire to the rec center for swim lessons on those days. What do you think?"

"Count me out," said Kristy. "I want to get the Krushers into better shape than they are now. Maybe we can get another world series against the Bashers by the end of the month! Anyway, I need time for practices." Kristy started a softball team for kids who aren't necessarily good enough to play in Little League, or are simply too young. The youngest player on the Krushers is Gabbie Perkins, who's a whole two and a half years old. They're not great players, but they have a ton of fun, and Kristy gets to share her softball obsession with the general public, so it all works out.

"Mary Anne, do you want it?" asked Dawn. "I'm kinda burned out from school last year, I don't really want to take on a full-time sitting job at this point."

I considered. I didn't have anything else planned for the summer, and babysitting would certainly be a fun way to pass the time. "Sure, I'd love to," I said. I called Mr. Gibson back and told him that I'd be his sitter, and got his address and some more information. "Great, I'll see you next week." I placed the phone back into the receiver.

The clock read 5:58. "Okay, two more minutes," said Kristy. "I make a motion that we vote on Mal and Jessi's cooking camp idea. All those in favor, say aye."

"Aye!" we all said enthusiastically. No doubt about it, the vote was unanimous.

New clients, good friends, great ideas for fun things to do with kids… this summer was just getting better and better!


End file.
